Driving to work this morning, I passed by the Poplar Grove Cemetery on the west side of Grand Marais. It looked different. Instead of a smattering of decorations; instead of a basket of faded roses or a bunch of daffodils on just a few gravestones, there was a reassuring orderliness about the hallowed place. Waving in the wind, marking many graves were dozens of small American flags.
In preparation for Memorial Day, the American Legion had quietly done its work.
The image is the same throughout the county, at the Maple Hill Cemetery, the remote Mineral Center Cemetery, the cemeteries in Lutsen, Tofte and Schroeder and others. All of the graves of servicemen and women are marked with our nation’s flag.
I appreciate the work of the American Legion. It is wonderful that our veterans are remembered and honored.
Their work isn’t done with the placement of the cemetery flags though. No, sometime in the early hours of the morning on Monday, May 27, Legion members will be at Harbor Park, putting up the larger flags that grace the waterfront on Memorial Day. Stars and stripes; red, white, and blue against the backdrop of the Grand Marais harbor, the often-photographed flags are whipped by the wind, but they stand strong.
I appreciate the flag-lined sidewalk and the American Legion folks who put them there.
But their work is not quite done. There are more flags to be taken care of. American Legion members don their uniforms and head to the Cook County courthouse lawn. Once there they uncase their polished rifles and unsheathe the ceremonial flags. They march through the grass in their spit-shined shoes to their assigned position and stand solemnly as the Memorial Day ceremony unfolds.
The Post Commander greets the assembled crowd. There is a prayer and a speech. The names of community veterans lost in the past year are read. After each name a bell softly tolls. The Legion members stand at attention as they hear the roll call. Some of the names are of comrades who once stood with them on the courthouse lawn.
The Legion Auxiliary is there too, and a wreath is laid on the Veteran’s Memorial. The auxiliary and the flag bearers stand at attention as the honor guard fires a volley salute.
Still the Legion is not finished. Perhaps the hardest part is yet to come. The end of most Memorial Day ceremonies is the playing of Taps.
The Legion and the Legion Auxiliary stand and remember. The audience—brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers of service men and women— join them in remembering as the haunting notes roll across the courthouse lawn, fading into the summer sky.
The Legion members are almost done. They march off the field, case their weapons, carefully retire the colors. They are then able to head to the Legion lounge for a luncheon. They eat and drink and joke, but they still are not off duty.
No, their work is not yet done. The next day they repeat the process, removing the flags from Harbor Park and from veterans graves, carefully storing everything until the next occasion—a school function, a parade—a funeral.
Hopefully sometime during all this, someone says thank you. Because not only are the men and women of the American Legion the hard-working people who carry flags and carry on the proud Legion tradition, they are veterans too.
Thank you all.
Ceremonies are important.
But our gratitude has to be
more than visits to the troops,
and once-a-year Memorial
Day ceremonies. We honor
the dead best by treating the
living well.
Jennifer M. Granholm
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